Not Just The Tallest But The Best

In The World Of Skyscrapers, All Eyes Look Up To Chicago

August 10, 1990|By June Sawyers.

For better or worse, the skyscraper has been a permanent fixture of the American urban landscape for well over a century. Chicago, the birthplace of the modern skyscraper, has played a significant role in its development.

Some of the biggest names in architecture-Daniel H. Burnham, John Wellborn Root, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-practiced their profession here. Apart from New York, no other American city can claim to offer the quality and range of architectural styles.

``Chicago has certainly the best collection of skyscrapers anywhere in the world,`` offers Dan Fitzgerald, volunteer docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

The definition of what exactly constitutes a skyscraper has changed over the years. ``At one point 10 stories was considered a skyscraper,`` Fitzgerald notes. Now it commonly refers to any tall building.

The building boom that started here in the 1980s has continued into the new decade. With each new addition-with each new demolition-the fabric of the cityscape is irreversibly altered. The considerable physical changes that have occurred in the Loop and Near North Side, in particular, in recent years are a case in point.

North Michigan Avenue is no longer the dignified boulevard it once was. Today, the gracious old queen is bursting at the seams as skyscraper after skyscraper pushes its way upward and outward, groping frantically for a piece of blue sky and affordable land. Under such conditions, there`s no place to go but up.

Initially the concept of the skyscraper held romantic connotations. There was something majestic about the idea of reaching for the heavens, of

``scraping`` the sky. Early skyscrapers, however, were not the sleek towers we`re accustomed to today but rather squat, boxy structures and, due to various zoning and height restrictions, seldom more than 20 stories high.

Why, one may ask, this need to erect tall buildings? Prestige, respect, vanity, to name a few reasons. Skyscrapers are, in effect, the American equivalent of pyramid building. Increasingly, an impressive skyline can boost a city`s flagging self-image and instill in it a sense of civic pride and honor.

``What it comes down to is a combination of economics and technical and business concerns and symbolic expression,`` suggests architectural historian, Carl Condit. ``A very big building excites public attention.``

There`s always been talk of attaining even greater heights. As far back as 1957, renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright proposed the construction of a mile-high skyscraper. At the same time, though, he encouraged a mass uprooting of the population from the overcrowded inner city to wide open spaces on the outskirts of town.

Yet not everyone felt that taller was necessarily better. Critics during the early part of this century gave various reasons to restrict height. Skyscrapers, according to one theory, cut off light, placing the city streets under a perpetual shadow and thus contributing to the spread of disease. Some dismissed skyscrapers as fire hazards while others called them economically unwise.

With the bigger-is-better mentality such a significant aspect of contemporary Chicago architecture, it`s surprising to learn that, at one point, the City Council felt compelled to impose a height limitation of a mere 130 feet in a short-lived attempt to model the city after London or Boston, according to Earle Schultz and Walter Simmons in ``Offices in the Sky.``

William LeBaron Jenney`s Home Insurance Building at the northeast corner of LaSalle and Adams Streets is credited with being the first real skyscraper. Completed in 1885, it was, unfortunately, demolished in the early 1930s. During the 1880s and 1890s, the firm of Burnham and Root developed what came to be known as the ``Chicago school of architecture,`` characterized by a simple, functional and straightforward design. Their work profoundly affected the appearance of the city.

Little construction occurred in the 1930s and 1940s as the double whammy of the Depression and America`s entry into World War II exacted a heavy toll, but in the 1940s German-born Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ushered in a new era in commercial architecture and his influence is still keenly felt. Looking boldly into the future, he developed a minimalist style that perfectly captured modern man`s rootless nature. Today, Miesian glass boxes so dominate the skylines of many of the world`s big cities that it is often difficult to distinguish one metropolis from another.

In recent years, though, there has been a turning away from Miesian architecture, or at least a softening of its severity, to forge a synthesis between modern materials and traditional forms. The German-born Helmut Jahn may seem like the epitome of the space-age architect but his work pays homage to older styles. This appreciation of the past expresses itself too in the natural materials now preferred such as stone or marble in various shades.